Multiculturalism in the United States

Multiculturalism in the United States
Author: Peter Kivisto
Publisher: Pine Forge Press
Total Pages: 566
Release: 2000-02-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780761986485

This reader focuses on the extremely current, important topic of racial and ethnic experiences in the United States today. Most of the essays were commissioned especially for this reader and have been prepared by some of the brightest voices in this cutting edge field. Instructors in search of a current, comprehensive multicultural reader will find this a valuable student resource whether it is the sole focus of their course or to be integrated into another content area.

Beyond the Cheers

Beyond the Cheers
Author: C. Richard King
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2001-05-31
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0791490408

Focusing on half-time performances, commercialized stagings, media coverage, public panics, and political protests, Beyond the Cheers offers an ethnography, history, and social critique of racial spectacles in college sport. King and Springwood argue that collegiate revenue producing sports are created as a spectacle, driven by a range of contradictory meanings and exploitative practices. While Native Americans are viewed largely as empty or distorted images and African Americans are seen as both shining stars and 'troubled delinquents,' White Americans remain constant as spectators, coaches, administrators, journalists, and athletes, producing and consuming college sport, performing and policing, but seemingly unmarked as racial subjects. In consuming these spectacles, American sports fans learn to embrace inflated, contradictory, and distorted renderings of racial difference and the history of race relations in America.

African Americans in Sports

African Americans in Sports
Author: Gary A. Sailes
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1351533649

Research on African American athletes generally fo-cuses on negative stereotypes of physical prowess, and socially controversial themes. Most studies in-vestigate racism, prejudice, discrimination, and ex-ploitation experienced by African American athletes. Many studies contrast African American and white athletes on a number of variables that support pre-vailing elitist stereotypes and denigrate African Ameri-can athletes. But few studies investigate the diverse and complex cultural dichotomies within the infrastruc-ture of sport in the African American community. Gary Sailes maintains that it is crucial to develop a more eclectic and immersed cultural approach when investigating African American involvement in com-petitive sports. The contributors to 'African Americans in Sports' show that there are also intrinsic cultural paradigms that are evident, presenting an informa-tive and interesting narrative regarding African American athletes. The chapters that make up this volume were written by noted scholars who were selected based on their expertise in their specific academic areas. They write about different components of the experience of African American male athletes. Chapters and contributors include: "Race and Athletic Performance: A Physiological Review" by David W. Hunter; "The Athletic Dominance of African Americans--Is There a Genetic Basis?" by Vinay Harpalani; "African American Player Codes on Celebration, Taunting, and Sportsmanlike Conduct" by Vernon L. Andrews; and "Stacking in Major League Baseball" by Earl Smith and C. Keith Harrison. Many chapters were originally published as a special issue of the 'Journal of African American Men.' This volume should be read by all those involved in athletics, as well as by sports sociologists and African American studies scholars.

Power Plays Power Works

Power Plays Power Works
Author: John Fiske
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2016-02-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317498569

Now, more than 20 years since its initial release, John Fiske’s classic text Power Plays Power Works remains both timely and insightful as a theoretically driven examination of the terrain where the politics of culture and the culture of politics collide. Drawing on a diverse set of cultural sites - from alternative talk radio forums, museums, celebrity fandom, to social problems such as homelessness - Fiske traverses the topography of the American cultural landscape to highlight the ways that ordinary people creatively construct their social identities and relationships through the use of the resources available to them, while constrained by social conditions not of their own choosing. This important analysis provides a set of critical methodological and analytical tools to grapple with the complexities and struggles of contemporary social life. A new introductory essay by former Fiske student Black Hawk Hancock entitled ‘Learning How to Fiske: Theorizing Power, Knowledge, and Bodies in the 21st Century’ elucidates Fiske’s methods for today’s students, providing them with the ultimate guide to thinking and analyzing like John Fiske; the art of ‘Learning How to Fiske’.

Perspectives on American Dance

Perspectives on American Dance
Author: Jennifer Jennifer Atkins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2020-04-14
Genre:
ISBN: 9780813068299

Dancing embodies cultural history and beliefs, and each dance carries with it features of the place where it originated. Influenced by different social, political, and environmental circumstances, dances change and adapt. American dance evolved in large part through combinations of multiple styles and forms that arrived with each new group of immigrants. Perspectives on American Dance is the first anthology in over twenty-five years to focus exclusively on American dance practices across a wide span of American culture. This volume and its companion show how social experience, courtship, sexualities, and other aspects of life in America are translated through dancing into spatial patterns, gestures, and partner relationships. This volume of Perspectives on American Dance features essays by a young generation of authors who write with familiarity about their own era, exploring new parameters of identity and evaluating a wide variety of movement practices being performed in spaces beyond traditional proscenium stages. Topics include "dorky dancing" on YouTube; same-sex competitors on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance; racial politics in NFL touchdown dances; the commercialization of flash mobs; the connections between striptease and corporate branding; how 9/11 affected dance; the criminalization of New York City club dancing; and the joyous ironies of hipster dance. This volume emphasizes how dancing is becoming more social and interactive as technology opens up new ways to create and distribute dance. The accessible essays use a combination of movement analysis, thematic interpretation, and historical context to convey the vitality and variety of American dance. They offer new insights on American dance practices while simultaneously illustrating how dancing functions as an essential template for American culture and identity. Contributors: Jennifer Atkins - Jessica Berson - J. Ellen Gainor - Patsy Gay - Ansley Jones - Kate Mattingly - Hannah Schwadron - Sally Sommer, Ph.D. - Ina Sotirova - Dawn Springer - Michelle T. Summers - Latika L. Young - Tricia Henry Young 

Perspectives on American Dance

Perspectives on American Dance
Author: Jennifer Atkins
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2020-02-25
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0813065658

Dancing embodies cultural history and beliefs, and each dance carries with it features of the place where it originated. Influenced by different social, political, and environmental circumstances, dances change and adapt. American dance evolved in large part through combinations of multiple styles and forms that arrived with each new group of immigrants. Perspectives on American Dance is the first anthology in over twenty-five years to focus exclusively on American dance practices across a wide span of American culture. This volume and its companion show how social experience, courtship, sexualities, and other aspects of life in America are translated through dancing into spatial patterns, gestures, and partner relationships. This volume of Perspectives on American Dance features essays by a young generation of authors who write with familiarity about their own era, exploring new parameters of identity and evaluating a wide variety of movement practices being performed in spaces beyond traditional proscenium stages. Topics include "dorky dancing" on YouTube; same-sex competitors on the TV show So You Think You Can Dance; racial politics in NFL touchdown dances; the commercialization of flash mobs; the connections between striptease and corporate branding; how 9/11 affected dance; the criminalization of New York City club dancing; and the joyous ironies of hipster dance. This volume emphasizes how dancing is becoming more social and interactive as technology opens up new ways to create and distribute dance. The accessible essays use a combination of movement analysis, thematic interpretation, and historical context to convey the vitality and variety of American dance. They offer new insights on American dance practices while simultaneously illustrating how dancing functions as an essential template for American culture and identity. Contributors: Jennifer Atkins | Jessica Berson | J. Ellen Gainor | Patsy Gay | Ansley Jones | Kate Mattingly | Hannah Schwadron | Sally Sommer, Ph.D. | Ina Sotirova | Dawn Springer | Michelle T. Summers | Latika L. Young | Tricia Henry Young 

Race in American Sports

Race in American Sports
Author: James L. Conyers, Jr.
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2014-05-21
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1476615845

These essays critically examine the issue of race in college and professional sports, beginning with the effects of stereotypes on black female college athletes, and the self-handicapping of black male college athletes. Also discussed is the movement of colleges between NCAA designated conferences, and the economic impact and effects on academics for blacks. An essay on baseball focuses on changes in Brooklyn during the Jackie Robinson years, and another essay on how the Leland Giants became a symbol of racial pride. Other essayists discuss the use of American Indian mascots, the Jeremy Lin spectacle surrounding Asians in pro sports, the need to hire more NFL coaches of color, and ideals of black male masculinity in boxing. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Playing While White

Playing While White
Author: David J. Leonard
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2017-07-03
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 0295741899

Playing While White argues that whiteness matters in sports culture, both on and off the field. Offering critical analysis of athletic stars such as Johnny Manziel, Marshall Henderson, Jordan Spieth, Lance Armstrong, Josh Hamilton, as well as the predominantly white cultures of NASCAR and extreme sports, David Leonard identifies how whiteness is central to the commodification of athletes and the sports they play. Leonard demonstrates that sporting cultures are a key site in the trafficking of racial ideas, narratives, and ideologies. He identifies how white athletes are frequently characterized as intelligent leaders who are presumed innocent of the kinds of transgressions black athletes are often pathologized for. With an analysis of the racial dynamics of sports traditions as varied as football, cycling, hockey, baseball, tennis, snowboarding, and soccer, as well as the reception and media portrayals of specific white athletes, Leonard examines how and why whiteness matters within sports and what that tells us about race in the twenty-first century United States.